From Strawberry Fields....to scrambled eggs to 1933 to Wes Montgomery...a long and winding road...
From Strawberry Fields....to scrambled eggs to 1933 to Wes Montgomery...a long and winding road...
Episode 39 Robin Hill’s ‘Eclectic City’
Music: ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ performed by RH & PW
Hello, this is Robin Hill, and welcome to episode 39 of ‘Eclectic City’.
The music you’ve just heard was the John Lennon composition,‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ arranged for 2 guitars by Peter Wiltschinsky…I remember it was the last track we recorded on our Classic Beatles double album.
Strawberry Fields, of course, was a Salvation Army run children’s home in Liverpool and a place where the young John Lennon would play in the grounds as a child.
When he got home to his aunt Mimi’s after playing out she would ask him ‘What have you been doing, John?’
‘Nothing to get hung about,’ he would reply and so it appears in the song. If you haven’t visited John Lennon’s childhood home at 251, Menlove Avenue in Liverpool..I recommend it…it is owned by the National Trust and has been restored to how it was when John lived there….also a couple of miles away is Paul McCartney’s childhood home, 20 Forthlin Avenue also owned by the National Trust and well worth a visit.
Well, we’ve heard a famous John Lennon song let’s hear an equally famous Paul McCartney one. This song came to Paul in a dream…he woke up and there it was! It was initially called ‘Scrambled Eggs’ but he wisely changed the lyrics and titled it, ‘Yesterday’…it became the most recorded song of the twentieth century!
One strange thing about it is that the verses are only seven bars long…not the usual more symmetrical eight…..it works perfectly! This is my arrangement for two guitars with myself playing both parts. I wonder who can spot the fragment of another melody right at the end of this?
Music: ‘Yesterday’ performed by Robin Hill
That was yesterday from my album, ‘Virtuoso’. Can you name the tune at the end?
And now for something very different…from ‘Yesterday’ we go to ‘Yesterdays’ by Jerome Kern….a very different song composed in 1933.
This features the Yorkshire soprano, Lesley Garrett, and the BBC Concert Orchestra (conducted by Paul Bateman) with myself and Peter Wiltschinsky on guitars. It comes from Lesley Garrett’s album, ‘Soprano in Hollywood’….
Music: ‘Yesterdays’ Lesley Garrett (soprano) Robin Hill & Peter Wiltschinsky (guitars)
BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Paul Bateman
That was ‘Yesterdays’ composed by Jerome Kern and performed by LG, RH & PW, BBC Concert Orchestra…
The theme of my album, ‘Retroglider’, which was released in 2020, was looking back and one of the most popular tracks is my homage to the great American jazz guitar legend, Wes Montgomery, ‘Funkin’ on Six’ …I wrote it last year but its feel and atmosphere is very 1960s…Wes Montgomery, who worked as a welder in a radio parts factory, famously said, ’Really, welding was my talent, but I sort of squished it aside.’
This track features Maurice Cheetham on drums and myself on everything else. Here’s ‘Funkin’ on Six’.
Music: ‘Funkin’ on Six’ composed and arranged by Robin Hill with Maurice Cheetham on drums.
That was, ‘Funkin’ on Six’ by myself and performed by myself with Maurice Cheetham on drums.
Its been an interesting journey so far filled with many diverse musical experiences…..I’ll leave you with PW’s beautiful arrangement for two guitars of Paul McCartney’s ‘Long and Winding Road’.
Thanks for listening and see you all next week.
Music: ‘Long and Winding Road’ performed by RH & PW